


Sentiment

by Sadistrix



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Character Study, F/M, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-14 23:02:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20608787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadistrix/pseuds/Sadistrix
Summary: This time, Reaper notes, she doesn't go pale with shock. There is no revulsion there, only sadness.





	Sentiment

The dart doesn't put him to sleep fully, but he is paralyzed, unable to lash out or to flee - which, Reaper still doesn't know.

Ana crouches beside him. "This is not who you are," she says, too calmly for the frantic, futile buzz of nanites beneath his skin, the agony-tinged rage that has yet to stop threatening to burst open his chest like a river in deluge. He'd howl and tear at her like a trapped animal if he could. But he cannot move, can't even growl the profanities at her that tear up his tongue.

She lifts the mask.

This time, Reaper notes, she doesn't go pale with shock. There is no revulsion there, only sadness. He's perversely satisfied by the idea until her fingertips light upon his cheekbone, palm following to caress what's left of his face, and suddenly Reaper finds that he can't breathe.

"You have always been a better man than you let yourself see. How many times must I mourn you, Gabriel?"

He's prepared to tune her out when Ana utters the words that strike him in a place Reaper never knew could hurt so deeply or so much after all this time - a sniper's accuracy, still - a place he thought he'd excised long ago. "_Come home_."

"Useless sentiment," he growls, forcing his half-paralyzed vocal chords in a way that tries to hurt worse than the blossoming mess behind his ribs. "Where's home, Ana? A pile of ruins out in the desert? A crumbling military base? On the run for the rest of your pitiful life..."

"I have a place," Ana says, ignoring the attempted jab. "It's quiet. Calm. Big enough for two, when you're done trying to suffer through on your own.''

"You haven't learned a thing," Reaper tells her, struggling against the paralytic. His fingertips twitch - just enough to stir the sand beneath his claws. Ana marks it too. "Clinging to ghosts will get you killed."

Ana stands, ready to abandon him once more the moment his molecular shackles break. "Then perhaps one day it'll stick," she says. "Until then, I'll keep fighting for what I believe in.

"Including you."


End file.
